[Beginner's Advancement] Can't practice hand pouring well? Three key points to pay attention to when practicing hand pouring

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"I have been practicing hand brewing for more than a year, but the quality of the coffee I brewed is sometimes good and sometimes bad, and most of the time it is not very tasty. This makes me not very brave to brew it for my friends. How can I practice hand brewing to make good coffee?"

I have been asked similar questions many times. After observing them, I found several common phenomena. I would like to share them with you today:

You can’t make a good dish from rotten fish, so stop using expired coffee beans!

When we are just starting out, we are thrifty and usually think that we should practice with cheaper beans first, so that we don’t feel bad if they get spoiled.

So when I practice, I will use coffee beans that have been stored for a long time or cheap commercial coffee beans in large bags from the supermarket to practice, thinking that I can brew good beans after I have mastered them, but the result is always raw...

Save a little money and spend a lot of money, save the wrong place and take the wrong road

Today, if you are a beginner who is using a hand brewing kettle and a coffee grinder for the first time, and simply want to simulate the preparation process of hand brewing or the Italian filling action, then there is certainly no problem in using cheap coffee powder as a test simulation.

But if you're going to practice making delicious coffee that people will admire today, you can't use cheap, expired coffee that has no flavor and no gas.

The purpose of hand brewing is to bring out the beautiful aroma and taste of the coffee, so if you use commercial coffee with little flavor variation, you will not be able to effectively taste the difference you are practicing.

Because no matter whether you brew it well or badly, the taste is almost the same, so you definitely won’t know whether you brewed it correctly.

What if you use high-quality specialty coffee that has been stored for a long time? (A year or so)

Unless the coffee beans are preserved by special methods such as pressurized oxygen-free storage, which can maintain the aroma inside the beans and prevent gas release, most of the coffee beans that have been stored normally and opened have been completely degased and oxidized, and the aroma has long been lost, leaving only a slight taste.

When brewing, the beans without gas will quickly absorb water and settle at the bottom of the filter, causing blockage and making the coffee bitter.

Moreover, the changes and stirring of the powder layer are also very important observation points in hand brewing. Losing the opportunity to observe the powder layer will greatly reduce the effect of practice.

Therefore, the right way to practice is to find a shop that you trust or have tasted in person, and buy a bag of fresh, high-quality specialty coffee beans. If you can first drink the coffee brewed by the shop as a practice direction, it will also be a simple and clear practice goal.

If the printing is not done well, you will adjust the parameters randomly and you will never know whether the parameters are wrong or your hands are shaking.

"Hundreds of people have different tastes" is the charm of hand-brewed coffee, but also the source of trouble. The same beans can have obvious flavor changes and taste differences as long as the grinding coarseness, brewing water temperature, coffee powder and water ratio are slightly adjusted.

When many people are not satisfied with the brewed coffee, they arbitrarily adjust the grinding fineness and brewing water temperature, as if they are playing the ultimate code, that is, if the numbers are right, the coffee will be right.

In fact, many people know that it is best to adjust only one parameter at a time, especially when practicing and testing flavors, but they often forget that "self" is also an important parameter.

From time to time, we see some questions and answers in the enthusiast communication group: "The flow rate is too fast, the time is too short, should the grinding be adjusted finer?" "Well, that is one of the ways"

As a result, the next cup took too long and was blocked. Why?

Because I subconsciously thought that the previous cup flowed too fast, I used a thinner and slower water injection, which caused the powder layer to accumulate and the water flowed slowly.

I didn't realize that my water injection was sometimes large, sometimes small, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, and each time the water injection was unstable, but I kept adjusting the parameters. Of course, it was difficult to know where the problem lay, causing each brewing to be in an unknown state.

Seek stability first, then change

The same beans will have different flavors each time you brew them. To put it nicely, it’s a change of flavors, but to put it bluntly, it’s unstable brewing.

Before you become familiar with the impact of various parameters, you can use the store's recommended parameters as a basis. First, use the parameters that are determined to be feasible as practice. Once you have a stable grasp of the flavor profile, you can then adjust the parameters to find the best sweet spot. This will be a more stable practice direction.

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Finally, Qiushishuka looks forward to meeting you for a cup of wonderful